FEBRUARY 2018 – PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA
Three years after announcing it had secured the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games from 2018-24 inclusive, Eurosport unveiled a ground-breaking studio on the eve of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Eighteen months of research and development resulted in the state-of-the-art Eurosport Cube, a visually stunning virtual reality studio that used augmented reality, enhanced data and 360-degree graphics to create an immersive and interactive environment.

In total, six graphics engines were developed and a total of nine 3D environments were created in addition to the two tracked cameras fitted in to the 52m-squared of LED panels. The most advanced graphic technologies allowed Eurosport’s experts and guest athletes to take analysis off the flat screen, enabling them to explain with their hands and their bodies, telling stories that explain technical differences in a way that makes the complicated simple.

A total of 122 different segments were created in the Eurosport Cube during PyeongChang 2018, featuring winter sports royalty such as medal winners Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, as well as Discovery’s team of winter sports experts including Bode Miller, Sven Hannawald and Peter Forsberg.

JULY 2019 – LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Whilst the Eurosport Cube that was used in PyeongChang was an undoubted success, winning a raft of awards in the process – Discovery strived for more. While the Cube in PyeongChang looked great, a lot of the segments were delivered in post-production.

How could Discovery develop a studio that was more versatile and could be used across other sports beyond simply the Olympic Games? How could Discovery take the viewer experience to a whole new level?

Work on a brand-new studio began in the immediate aftermath of PyeongChang as Discovery tried to pushed forward the Cube as well as address some of the challenges - challenges such as developing a product that could deliver content in real-time rather than in post-production.

One of the first major testing sessions came in July 2019 when it privately showcased how it envisaged the Cube could look for Discovery’s tennis coverage. Many different scenarios were highlighted – a tennis court, an interview room – while, as with all great innovations, several ideas didn’t progress beyond the experimental stage.


SEPTEMBER 2020 – NEW YORK, USA
There are not many occasions that viewers, players and an entire industry come together in unison to applaud a single innovation – but on 1 September 2020, in the first week of the US Open, that is exactly what happened when Discovery Sports tennis anchor Barbara Schett – positioned in London - interviewed tournament number one seed Karolina Pliskova, who had just won her first round match in New York.

Ahead of its US Open coverage for millions of tennis fans across Europe, Eurosport faced a unique challenge. Now in the grip of a global pandemic, COVID-related measures in New York restricted Eurosport’s ability to create and distribute content from on-site. How could Eurosport tell the story of the event and bring fans closer to the action if it couldn’t be there?

To meet this challenge, Eurosport unveiled a new innovation observers immediately dubbed ‘the future of sports coverage’. With the re-scheduling of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 to 2021, and with new challenges to overcome, Eurosport took the bold step to re-engineer the studio in London and launch for the US Open. The new Cube, unveiled at the 2020 US Open, was an interactive mixed-reality studio using augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and enhanced graphics, going way beyond the traditional green screen-style studio. The Cube’s most engaging feature was the ability to ‘teleport’ guests into the studio from anywhere in the world. Eurosport utilised this technology to have the players appear ‘physically’ in the studio from New York and have direct post-match conversations with its hosts and guests in London. The real game-changer was the ability to allow true interactions, as players and host enjoy a direct eye-line and the feeling they’re physically together in once space.

Rather than technology for technology’s sake, the solution had real purpose and impact. With spectators outside the stadiums and all pundits required to be back home, the Cube brought the Players closer to the fans and more deeply engaged audiences with the stories that mattered from New York.

JULY 2021 – TOKYO, JAPAN
Discovery Eurosport kept the full range of new Cube innovations under wraps until the Tokyo 2020 Games (re-scheduled to July-August 2021) as it sought to continue maximising engagement with audiences with content that set it apart from broadcasters and competitors.

The extended reality Cube studio was the centre-piece of Discovery’s coverage of Tokyo 2020, showcasing new software and motion graphics that pushed the Cube’s analytical capabilities to a whole new level, giving viewers the chance to deep dive into the details of why an athlete won gold.

In addition, the Cube for Tokyo 2020 featured seven different immersive real-time video environment locations as well as bespoke 360-degree beauty shots of Tokyo as visually stunning backdrops. Newly-released 3D Zoom software, meanwhile, allowed viewers to see wider and more spectacular panoramic views of Cube locations. A virtual set extension with cameras were also able to roam around the digital environment.

The teleportation function, so popular across Discovery’s tennis coverage, was taken to a whole new level for Tokyo 2020 – with green screens set-up in multiple locations across Europe meaning teams could interact with athletes in Tokyo from their local set, yet incredibly appear as though they are conversing face-to-face in the Cube in London.

FEBRUARY 2022 – BEIJING, CHINA
The Cube is now re-versioned and re-branded for use across numerous sporting events including cycling, superbikes and tennis, with UFC shows being hosted from there throughout 2022.

The Cube environment created and developed over the past three years has enabled new analytical tools to  come to the fore, such as integrating hawk-eye data which was used for the first time at the 2021 US Open.

But with Beijing 2022 on the horizon, the innovation doesn’t stop there. The Cube will now feature a fully-immersive winter environment with 26 different ‘environments’ – from a ‘bar’ area to ‘ski lifts’ in total. 3D actors – rendered in Viz - are a new feature included in the environments which will add to the overall atmosphere for viewers, while viewers will also notice an increase in the quality of analysis.

As the Cube evolves, virtual reality gets ever closer to becoming real. And Discovery, whether it be through teleportation or mixed-reality studios, is at the forefront of making the impossible possible.

Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 begins on Wednesday 2 February with coverage of every medal from every event LIVE on discovery+ (selected markets) and Eurosport